Everybody knows it. Even President-elect Barack Obama, who would seem to have more than an adequate number of crises to occupy his attention, addressed the matter in his first major post-election interview. In the November 60 Minutes sit-down, Obama decried the frustratingly ill-conceived and muddled method that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the sport's governing body, uses to determine its Division I-A college-football champion. (That method will be showcased this week, as Florida and Oklahoma square off for the title on January 8.)

Obama called for an eight-team playoff to replace the existing and controversial Bowl Championship Series (BCS), noting, "I don't know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it's the right thing to do." (So, basically, the guy who has vowed to have a respectful dialogue with any crumbum Third World dictator is now threatening to steamroll over tweedy American college presidents — but that's another story.)

Truth is, no matter how compellingly awful the news from the outside world (a cratering economy, environmental decay, a completely fucked Middle East), the steroid-aided sports universe keeps injecting itself into the national political discourse, and stealing thunder from seemingly more important stories. Another example: as the financial markets continued to plunge to 77-year lows, the buzz epicenter moved 180-odd streets north of Wall Street to the Bronx, where the New York Yankees were setting spending records to acquire new talent. The Evil Empire lay out $423.5 million to put just three players in pinstripes. (The Yankees now have under contract the four highest-paid players in baseball, whose combined salaries total $805 million — which is $205 million more than the construction costs of Citi Field, the new ballpark of the Mets, the Yankees' cross-town rivals.)

Thus, in an effort to free up the incoming president so he can concentrate on the most pressing concerns of the day, we offer 20 ways to improve sports — not a single one of which will require bailout money.

BASEBALL1) Institute a damn salary cap already Why bother even having 30 teams in Major League Baseball if one of those teams spends more in the off-season than the other 29 teams combined? That's what happened when the Bronx Bombers signed pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and first baseman Mark Teixeira this past month. Mind you, some of that money is available thanks to the cash the Yankees saved when they got a publicly funded sweetheart deal on their brand-spanking-new stadium.

Some salary-cap foes will argue that the wage-challenged Tampa Bay Rays reached the World Series this past year while competing in the same division as the rich Yankees and Boston Red Sox, both of which are First World teams compared with Tampa's Tajikistan. But remember that in the 2008 campaign Tampa Bay had just its first winning season in its 11-year history, and only through years of sacrifice and patient drafting — and much luck — did it finally put together a winning squad. The Yankees, meanwhile, didn't reach the playoffs for just the first time in 14 seasons, and decided to make a market correction by busting out the monopoly money, a luxury that most other teams don't enjoy.

Ten years of great sports Moments after Adam Vinatieri's field goal split the uprights as the clock expired in the Louisiana Superdome on February 3, 2002, the streets of Boston were in bedlam. Drunk people dangled from trees and hung off lampposts. Motorists leaned on their horns. I saw a guy hug a cop

Prospect Park Yes! Baseball season is finally here. All is as it should be in the world, if not with the Red Sox, who have had a tough start. But that’s OK.

Jocktail Party This past Sunday night, behind Fenway Park, a subtle yet symbolic changing of the Boston sports-media guard occurred, giving unprecedented power to the people.

Curse and worse The high point of Johnny Baseball , the new musical receiving its world premiere from the American Repertory Theater (at the Loeb Drama Center through June 27), comes two-thirds of the way through the second act.

Brains, balls, and a key to Fenway Mnookin’s tale of unprecedented access lays bare the workings of one of the biggest and most beloved franchises in sports, during one of the most epochal eras of its 105-year history. Beyond "Dirty Water": Red Sox songs that don't suck. By Mike Miliard

Let’s recap With the decade drawing to a close, it's fitting to reconsider the moments and developments of the last 10 years that forever changed sports in Portland and New England.

Goal rush! Get two journalists in a room these days, and before the conversation is five minutes old they'll probably be kvetching about the grim state of the news business. Unless, that is, they happen to be sports journalists, in which case the conversation will likely focus on how absurdly bright the future looks. Especially here in Boston.

Balls of fire For one month every four years, the United States — try as it might — can’t impose its vacuous culture on the rest of the planet. The World Cup arrives and the Americans are, at best, an afterthought.

The Year of the Nerd Barack Obama is many things. Dedicated senator. Devoted husband and father. Adept orator. President-elect. Nerd.

Review: The Rocket that Fell to Earth On July 18, 1992, in a celebrated post-game meltdown at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, the pitcher formerly known as the Rocket expressed his displeasure over a column I had written.

HIGH AND LOW CULTURE FROM JAPAN | June 02, 2010 Attention, admirers of quirky kitsch and over-the-top aesthetics: hit PAUSE on that Belle and Sebastian record for a second.

GOING FOR GOLD GLOSSARY | February 17, 2010 The Summer Olympics are fairly easy to comprehend for the average couch tuber: people running, hoisting, swimming in synch — all fairly quotidian activities.

RAINBOW NATION | January 28, 2010 After a torturous history of being treated like second-class citizens, the black population in this country stunned the world by pulling off the unimaginable: voting a black man in as president.

INTERVIEW: OZZY OSBOURNE | January 29, 2010 Long before he bit the heads off bats and doves, Ozzy Osbourne worked in a cheerless abattoir in the hardscrabble Aston section of Birmingham, England, where for 18 months he held such titles as "cow killer," "tripe hanger," "hoof puller," and "pig stunner."